


Falling Freely

by Evaunit02mark1



Category: Owlboy (Video Game)
Genre: Multi, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 12:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8489710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evaunit02mark1/pseuds/Evaunit02mark1
Summary: Congratulations, the world is saved, the villain dashed, and happy days are here again.Now all that Otus has to deal with is a world irrevocably changed from the one he once knew, the revelations of the Ancient Owl race and their descendants, A lot of very confused and very scared people, and possibly pirates.That's assuming of course he survives on the strange land he landed on long enough to find his friends.It's gonna be a long day.





	

His first thought was, Everything aches.

 

His second thought was, if I ache that means I’m alive.

 

His third thought was, If I’m alive, then what hap-

 

Otus’s eyes fly open with a jerk, his body trying to sit upright. Trying and failing because as soon as he did so a massive jolt of pain flew up his back and caused him to spasm. His warbling cry of agony shook the leaves of the trees surrounding him, and not for the first time in his life Otus wished he could swear.

 

Biting back another imagined curse he tried again, this time more slowly. Instead of the lancing fire from before this merely caused almost crippling suffering to play across his spine. He ignored it as best he was able, for he was alive and that meant that his friends might be too.

 

With his new vantage point he looked around himself, trying to find some reference point to where he was. What he saw, did not fill him with confidence.

 

Trees, a whole lot of trees, surrounded him on all sides. They were strange, spindly things, the trunks bare of any branches, while the tops were covered in long leaves that swayed in the wind. Below them sat bushes, shrubs covered in yellow leaves and the occasional thorn. Surrounding all this however was an ever present breeze blowing in, causing the plants to dance with almost jovial movements.

 

Otus did not recognize these plants, which meant that he was somewhere he’s never been before. That in and of itself wasn’t too bad, most of his recent memories were of places he hadn’t been before. The only problem was those places usually tried to kill him, horribly, in countless different ways.

 

Mostly involving giant monsters of some kind.

 

He made a mental note to ask someone why his people seemed to have a fixation of filling their temples and other important buildings with giant creatures that wanted to kill anyone who went in them.

 

Just seems rude really.

 

Shaking his head he dismisses these thoughts, focusing on standing. Shakily he gets to his feet, bracing himself on one of the tree trunks. Even with the support he’s forced to almost hug the trunk in order to stay upright. Still though, progress is progress, and if he can stand then maybe he can walk.

 

One foot in front of the other he moves forward, not towards any particular destination, just to see that he can. There’s a brief moment of fear when he almost stumbles, but he catches himself in time and with a grin of success he stands. Taking a deep breath he lets loose a pleased chirp, and for the benefit of no one but himself, does his pose of triumph. He didn’t name it that himself of course, Geddy did it when he first saw it, but Otus liked the name so he kept it.

 

Pose complete and the ability to walk confirmed Otus decided to take stock of his equipment. His teleporter was still intact thankfully, but it looked like he couldn’t call his friends from wherever it is he was now. That, was less than ideal.

 

In his pockets he still had those weird coins from before, their strange silver faces molded into the shape of an Owl. They tingled in his grip when he touched them, and he quickly put them back. He had no idea what their purpose was, but if there was anything the last few days have shown him, ancient owls were both extremely crazy and extremely short sighted. Best to leave them alone for now.

 

The last and most improtant thing was his cloak. Gingerly he pinched the edge with two of his gauntleted fingers and raised it up slowly. What he saw caused him to wince, and for tears to gather in his eyes.

 

His cloak was damaged, severely. Tears ran all across the fabric, narrow yes, but long and ragged. Flying with something like this would be impossible, worst still if he tried it would only cause the holes to grow even worse, making any attempt at repair even longer. He was grounded.

 

He wanted to cry, he really wanted to cry, but he swallowed his tears. Crying right now would do him no good, especially considering all that happened. He needed to see what happened to the world, to see what Solus did and if his plan actually worked. The last thing he wanted to do was float into space and die, not after falling from space trying to prevent that very thing from happening.

 

Taking a deep breath he looked both left and right, to his left the forest grew denser, the light being swallowed up by leaves and causing shadows to dance along the grass. To his right it grew lighter, the trees seeming to become more sparse. With a shrug Otus went right, he had enough of dark places for a lifetime. If he’s going to be chased by something that wants to wear his skin like a hat he should at least be able to do it where he can see what he’s running from.

 

Step by step he moves forward, traveling into that shining light. Shielding his eyes from the sudden glare he opens them to see a land of shining yellow. Carefully he places one foot on the shining substance and immediately pulls it back when he hears a shifting crunching sound. He stands like that for about a minute, waiting for something to explode out from somewhere, roar, and try to eat him like Geddy eats peanuts. When nothing does, he puts his boot back on the ground and takes another step.

 

Further and further he moves, pushing his way through the mysterious substance. There’s a noise roaring in his ears, a sound he’s never heard before. Immediately he tenses, getting ready to run back into the forest, but when it’s clear that whatever making the noise isn’t coming after him he continues walking.

 

Slowly but surely the noise gets louder and louder the more he moves in that direction, and curiosity soon wins over fear. Closer and closer he edges forward, until a sight that he couldn’t even imagine takes his breath away. The entire horizon is filled with blue, the deepest blue he’s ever seen, and when he looks up, there’s nothing in the sky.

 

He smiles, harder than he ever had before. They did it, they actually did it. He’s saved everyone, they’ve saved the world.

 

Now all he has to do is somehow fix his cloak, find out where the heck he ended up, and find his friends in this strange new world.

 

His grin slackens somewhat, but he takes another deep breath and gives a snort of defiance. He saved the world, doing everything else should be easy. Even if he couldn’t fly.

 

He hopes.


End file.
